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  • From: mauch1@aol.com
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Apple Disaster in Minnesota
  • Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 15:50:18 -0400

Jim,
 
I had sent you private email, but I'm not sure it went through.
 
I'm sorry for your problem. 
 
If you're interested (for next year), I can send you starter tubes of Japanese Hornfaced (mason) bees.  Related to the native Blue Orchard bee (same genus), but I think slightly better for pollination (they prefer rose family (apple, pear, prunus) flowers).  They were brought over hear by the USDA (by a Dr. Susan Batra, now retired) and distributed by them.  They would not naturally survive your winters, but if you had someplace that you could store them in the winter(such as a cold cellar), where the temperature get cold but not below 20 F. they would do fine for you.  Excellent pollinators.  Nectar would not be an issue for these bees for like the blue orchard bees they are 'pollen' bees and interested in the pollen, not the nectar (why an individual mason bee is a more efficient pollinator than an individual honey bee -- the masons tend to approach the flower from the top, landing on the stamens and pistil, while honey bees tend to approach the flowers from the side, going after the nectaries.)  {If you see similarities between Pete Chrisbacher's post and mine - its because we're in the same Lancaster PA based BackYard Fruit Growers group (www.byfg.org).}
 
The only thing I could think to recommend for this year(and I don't know how many trees you have), is do what the Japanese farmers' wives did before they 'domesticated' the hornfaced bees.  They would manually hand pollinate the blossoms.  You'd only want to pollinate one blossom per cluster and not all clusters, but it would be terrribly tedious (and depending on your acerage, impossible) [the Japanese actually did do this, I saw slides that Dr. Batra had] .  Though Japan is much milder than Minnesota, being a maritime climate and cool, the honeybees would often not fly for them when their apples were in bloom. 
 
 
Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N 75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation



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